Dec 27, 2012

Given the inclination of
backyard chicken keepers to add chickens to their existing flocks, also known as "chicken math," it is
extremely important that proper quarantine procedures are followed when bringing new flock members home. Failure to quarantine new flock members can result in the death of an
entire flock of chickens.

To illustrate the importance
of quarantine, a long-time Facebook follower, Melissa Stalpers, has graciously offered to share
her story. This timeline documents the events leading up to the loss of her entire flock recently:

November 9: Melissa bought 3, six month
old, healthy-looking, Cinnamon Queen chickens from a breeder through Craigslist. Unknowingly, she did not properly quarantine the new chickens from her existing flock of 42 chickens. (they were in a crate near her flock)

November 19: the new birds develop
bubbly, clear fluid in their eyes and nostrils, breathing sounds rattly and
they begin falling over. Within hours, 2 of the 3 new birds died. Melissa wrote to me on
Facebook & I recommended that she obtain a necropsy of the deceased birds.

**Any time a sick
chicken dies suspiciously, a necropsy of the deceased bird(s) should be performed. Information about obtaining a necropsy can be found HERE.

November 20th: third new bird died.
First existing flock member developed

the same symptoms the new birds exhibited.

Ameraucana hen with matted feathers around the eyes due to the discharge from MG.

November 30th: Five existing flock members have died. Bird sent to have necropsy performed.

December 6th: Veterinarian confirms mycoplasma gallisepticum (aka: MG, chronic respiratory disease, CRD). This highly contagious, respiratory disease was likely latent in the Cinnamon Queens and the stress of moving caused the disease to become active and spread. Remaining flock members were treated with Baytril, Cipro and eye drops to mitigate the symptoms, but would always remain carriers of MG.

Melissa's daughter helps medicate the flock, a process that took 2 hours every day.

By December 11: the entire flock of 42 birds had died and the family was distraught.

Melissa's flock members in healthier days.

Again, many thanks to Melissa for sharing her story so that we can benefit from her experience.

WHAT IS QUARANTINE?

To quarantine means to completely isolate
newly acquired birds from an existing flock for a significant period of
time, during which they are observed for diseases and parasites.

WHY QUARANTINE?

A chicken can appear perfectly healthy while
harboring problems (diseases and parasites) that may not be obvious initially. Quarantining provides an opportunity to watch
for health dangers without risking the health of an existing flock. Moving chickens from
one home to another is a major stressor, which can cause
latent diseases to become active posing a health threat to other
birds.

HOW TO QUARANTINE

Birds from different
backyards, farms or facilities should be quarantined as long as possible in
separate housing, away from the main flock; the bare minimum recommendation is
two weeks, but 30-60 days is preferred. During the quarantine period, testing can be performed if
desired (eg: fecal float testing for worms, bloodwork for other communicable diseases) and a lice or mite infestation can
be identified and treated. Once the quarantine period is over and all the new birds still appear healthy, they can be integrated gradually into the existing flock.

QUALITY QUARANTINE = D.I.T.O.: Distance, Isolation, Time, Observation

Distance

Keep new birds at least 12 yards away from existing flock. Some diseases, such as mycoplasma gallisepticum, can
travel in the air.

These Silver Spangled Hamburg pullets were kept in my basement in January, far away from the main flock, for 6 weeks before they took up residence in our new coop.

Isolation

Keep new birds confined and isolated in a dedicated pen or other suitable area. Don’t share equipment, clothes, shoes,
feeders, waterers between the new birds & existing flock. For example: do not wear the same boots to feed
the new birds and then walk to the existing flock in the same boots as many pathogens can be carried on clothes, equipment and shoes.

Time

The longer a bird is in quarantine, the greater the opportunity for diseases to
manifest themselves and be detected. Three weeks is the bare minimum recommendation, but longer is better.

After the quarantine period has expired and everyone checks out okay, the process of integration into the existing flock can begin. Learn how to go about introducing the newbies without bloodshed while minimizing stress in this article.

103 comments
:

i went rounds and rounds treating an outbreak of round worms this year after not quarantining new birds. NEVER again... never again. i will hatch them myself or do without.even the dog got roundworms from eating their poo! ug...-the wandering chicken and mini-farm.

Oh my gosh, Melissa's story is so sad! I'm so glad she allowed you to share it so hopefully others won't have to go through the same thing. This post is timely for me as we are thinking of adding some pullets to our flock. If we do, I will be sure to keep them far away from our existing flock for at least a month!

This is such important advice! As a novice chicken owner this is one of the reasons I shy away from adopting grown chickens. I plan to incubate eggs for new flock babies later this month....hopefully this cuts down infecting the whole flock with a disease. Am I right????? Jo

We also found this out the hard way, I believe we also got CRD, but we treated with Tylan for 5 days and did not loose any birds, but we added 6 new birds after that and 3 of them also had to be treated. Even though we didn't have any chickens die from this, it is still tough because we wanted to raise some chicks to sell and I don't think we can/should, since they will all be introduced to the CRD. Frustrating that, for us, it was one bird that brought this all in, all we had were chicks until we brought in the first adult - I have a much better appreciation for raising up chicks and waiting for them to grow up under your care rather than getting an older bird.

Wow, I had no idea some diseases travel thru air. So sorry for your friends loss. And thank you for sharing all this info. Hubby has been thinking about raising a small herd of chickens, as we did many many years ago, when our children were kids.

Wow, this is so informative! I would have never thought to do this, but I'm so glad that I stumbled upon this particular post. Is it true that when you introduce new chickens into a flock, the old flock members will pick on the new members? And if so how can we prevent that from happening? I don't know if this is normal or if our hens are just bullies..

That was interesting. Do you know anything about ducks? we have some ducks that have bumps on their feet. In October we put a wooden floor on their cage and since then we noticed their foot problem. Thanks for any help. Linda

Hi Kathy,What a sad story :( But also very informative, especially for newbies...good info! I would love to have you share this next week on Wildcrafting Wednesdays! Please stop by to vote for your favorite post on our People's Choice Awards at:http://www.theselfsufficienthomeacre.com/2012/12/peoples-choice-award-for-wildcrafting-wednesday.html

Some rearranging of the pecking order is to be expected, Terra, however, measures should be taken to carefully integrate the new members into the existing flock so as to minimize the squabbling. This is what I recommend: http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2011/06/integrating-new-flock-members-playpen.html

Hi Kathy. I dialed the # you have listed above for the USDA I think. Anyway, it says the # dialed is not in service. Great article though. I think not quarantining cost me 4 or 5 chickens this past chickens. I'm always in too much of a hurry to see if they will get along! I've learned my lesson and will do the full quarantine from now on. Thanks very much

Great Information and very important RULE!!! I watch yard sales for Kid's Plastic Playhouses. They work great for Chicken coops and look cute around the yard for the various stages of Chicks to chickens that I have separated from my main coop of laying hens.

Great reminder on the importance of quarantining. I have a new hen in quarantine (it's been 2 weeks), and have been so tempted to "cut the quarantine short" since she has appeared healthy since the day brought home. Re-reading your post today (have read it before), it reminded me to do the best thing for my existing flock, and not act out of a desire to "get back to normal" having all my chickens in the one run/coop. Thanks!

I did not quarantine new birds that I brought home, nor did I know how important their vaccines are. I lost 3( most likely the carriers) and when the 4th got sick(our very first chick from last year) I called our local co-op. They thought Newcastle and I had to have the 4th put down and tested. It turned out to be Marek's Disease. It was sad to watch the birds die that way. The 8 we have left are doing well, 3 out of them were vaccinated so hopefully everyone stays healthy!

You need to know what they died of in order to know whether it is treatable or not. Clearly the three remaining birds are not safe to integrate into your existing flock at this point and they may never be, but the only way to know is to have them tested either post mortem or by a vet.

We always keep any new birds/fledglings we get for our flock, inside the house with us for about 2 months. This not only allows us to observe if they're sick or not, but allows time for us to bond with them, and them with us. And then when we get ready to introduce them to the flock afterwards, it's only for a few hours at a time that's supervised for a couple of weeks, leaving them longer and longer with the established flock till they're ready to be left in the coop at night without too much fuss and fighting as the new pecking order is figured out among them.

From reading your posts I knew the importance of quarantine, but didn't realize the need for the separation and timing. My heart just ached when I read of Melissa's loss, devastating... We were thinking of getting more chicks this Sept, but I think we'll wait till Spring now as the quarantine will be easier. I'm thankful to Melissa, as nothing illustrates the importance of something as a shared experience.

Good info. I didn't know the USDA would do that. We have tried to raise baby guineas and most of them always get something and die when they get a little older and can free range. I would love to know what is going on and what they have that is doing this to them. I'll be sure to call them the next time we try to raise some again and they die.

I read this today, 16 days after buying and introducing the flock to four young pullets we purchased from a local farm. We only quarantined them for about 24 hours, and then slowly began introducing them to the rest of the flock. I was nervous about introducing them so early since I'd read a long time ago about quarantining them, but my husband was assured by several local farmers that it wasn't necessary. Now what? Should we quarantine them now, or are we out of the danger zone? At least I know what to do in the future. Thanks for your help.

This past spring I purchased 6 chickens from Rural King, I already had a couple of Houdans, Silkies and Polish. I was brand new to chickens and didn't know to quarantine. All were about the same age so I put them in a stock tank in my garage and grew them up until they could go out to their coop under a heat lamp. They did great together and once they were full grown I began to lose the Rural King hens, I lost all but 2 of them. I was told that it was Mareks disease but never had them tested. The two are still alive and healthy and laying pretty blue eggs. Yesterday I got 3, 3 mo old chicks that appear very healthy. I do have them quarantined, but I've been told that I can never put them in with the ones with the suspected Mereks. What is your advice?

My chicks hatched may 27th. It's starting to get cold where I live and less light. I don't want to put a light on a timer in the coop because I think they should lay naturally with the seasons. I'm wondering I should expect an egg in the middle of winter or if I shoul plan on it being spring before I get my first egg?

Thank you Kathy. This is great information, as we are planning on re-homing our Rhode Island Red rooster and obtaining another rooster later this spring. We don't have a basement but have a barn where I can modify part of it for quarantine. There are no other animals in it (like horses or cattle). I presume quarantine is also vital to chicks.

I had four Blue splash Marans arrive this summer. Within two months, two were dead from the same disease that brought down Melissa's entire flock. Tgank goodness I kept them seperate. I've got nine new birds coming next weekend and a quarantine area set up on the other side of the property. Its such a good practice, thank you for spreading the word.

Now I understand the quarantine process, I did not know this. Now after the quarantine how do I introduce the new birds, I have baby chicks coming in a month, do they have to have their own coop until fully grown?? Thank you for all your informative info, I am a new chicken keeper and just seem to want more and more chickens!! :)

I have a question, I have my first small flock on order I am getting special breads from a reputable place. I am getting 8 bantam types of chicks they do not vaccinate before shipping because of the small size of the babies. It is something that has worried me since placing my order. I live in NV what do I need to do on my part to keep them healthy besides medicated feed? I have been reading so much and learned so much this is one thing I haven't found munch info on.

Thanks for your article, I learned the hard way. As a youth & into my 20's, I was passionate about showing chickens, it was my life!! I used to show at just two poultry shows every year, and I never quarantined when I got home because I didn't take it seriously. Once my flock picked up scaley leg mites from a show which I was able to eliminate with a -lot- of work, it could have been prevented if I had vaselined all of my birds legs when I got home. Still I kept showing without quarantining.

The worst was about 6 years ago and it completely changed my life and what I was able to do with my chickens. I showed a few birds at a local show, and during that show I noticed a bird cooped right next to my bird who was obviously sick - plugged nose, watery eyes, puffed feathers. I got upset at the owner of the bird and asked him to take it out of the show but he was in denial about it being sick and put up a stink about it. Over the next year I lost half of my flock to infectious laryingotrachaeitis. Most asphyxiated and suffocated due to cankers that are symptoms of the virus. I killed so many birds who showed symptoms and it was emotionally heartwrenching. I had so much love, experimentation in genetics and time invested into my flock I opted to let the flock die out naturally instead of wiping them all out myself, but it was this moral question that weighed on my mind every day - do I kill them all and be done with it? Or do I see if they are able to recover from it and live somewhat normal lives? It has been 5 years now and I lose four or five birds a year out of 45. They are all potential carriers even if they look healthy so I have not let birds off the property since the outbreak, and showing is completely out of the question because I would never wish this upon another persons flock. All of the remaining birds appear and act completely healthy but I know they are carriers so I am letting the flock die out naturally. It has hugely curbed the numbers of what I am able to raise, since I no longer have an outlet for my extra birds, and I have to kill them instead of rehoming them, so I have stopped hatching for the most part. It's a really sad situation that could have been prevented had I quarantined, and now I know. Good luck out there, please quarantine your birds and take health at poultry shows seriously!

I sure wish I would have read this a week ago. Long story short. We had a Hen (She never laid an egg?!?!) and a Rooster for almost 2 months. Brought in a new hen and 4- 1 month old chicks. (Did not quarantine b/c I had NO idea!) A few days later our old hen died. Didn't notice any breathing problems. bugs. etc. but she wasn't eating/ drinking much. And sleeping A LOT. Today I notice that Mr. Rooster is sleeping A LOT, haven't notice eating/ drinking changes.. What do you think could be wrong?! What should I do? Is it too late to isolate the newbies?! Please email me if possible! I'd hate to lose all of our ladies.. erb282@aol.com

Wish I read this a few weeks ago. I to am going through the same process as Melissa. I find out tomorrow what my new hens have brought with them. I separated for a week, more for introducing than for quarantine. I have added chickens many times over the yeRs and never have I seen what is wrong with them now. One died with in three days but showed no signs but just put it down as being moved. I also had one with a cough but because it ate and drank I didn't think it was anything serious. I certainly know now that it is. One dying and another showing symptoms. Just praying it is treatable and I don't lose all my new and old flock.

I had read about quarantining and did so. However, the importance was driven home when I stopped at a hatchery and got into a discussion with the lady at the front desk. A friend had picked up a couple of new chickens at a swap and brought them over to show her. Within days she lost her entire laying flock... Lesson driven home. All of my newbies get a nice long quarantine in the "quarantine run".

I recently got 3 2 week old chicks from a friend who got them from Tractor Supply, so obviously they're still inside and will be for quite a while. Do I follow the same protocol with these chicks as you've outlined above?

I have 2 pullets with swollen eye on the Right side. One has been swollen for a month- it has only been in the last week that I have realized the symptoms match CRD. The other started Friday. I has given antibiotics (tylan) to the first, and now the second, with no change in the swelling. My question is if the eye swells- does it ever get better? I have Denagard coming- should I wait and try that? or just cull now? I feel like the swelling harbors infections material that continues to infect the others. THey are isolated. Most that I have talked to say that the birds typically die within days if the eye swells. THe first bird still has a swollen eye- and I think she was the instigator of my others getting sick. Just asking for an opinion- no local vets for this.

I'm sorry to hear of alk your losses, I guess we need to add this to our plan this month we will be taking at least 4 from our flock to the fair to show in 4H. About a month ago we had to have a blood test drawn on one chicken from our flock. Everybody who is showing had to do this?? I hope this will minimize our risk, we get so attached.

Cathy, I just had a thought. My two girls have been to a recognized avian veterinarian twice for simple exams. The girls are healthy.However, reading this gave me cause to pause. What is the likelihood of their contracting a disease from being at the vet? Just like people can contract illnesses from being in the hospital, would it be possible for them to get sick there? They walk about on the floor while in the room, in addition to being on the exam table.I thought I was being a good chicken mom, but maybe I should only take them in for emergencies.Thanks for your feedback, as always,Claudine

FYI along the same line, I bought some turkeys and didn't quarantine them from my hens. The hens got "chicken pox" from the turkeys. quarantine any and all birds before letting any of your flock near them. I only lost one hen to this but the rest of the flock are now carriers and I will not sell them to anyone because of this.

I ordered hatching eggs online from an individual, and have 3 adorable hamburg chicks to show for it. The eggs were dirty and I tossed the worst. The others I washed in oxine solution. Do I have any risks to my flock from these 3 sweet babies? It never occurred to me that they could carry disease without showing it.

First off, my heart goes out to Melissa. That is such a tragic loss. Secondly, I have found your website to be my most valuable resource in my new found hobby. Thank you for all that you do!In regards to poultry deaths, how would one dispose of the birds? Especially that many? Thankfully I have yet to experience any deaths among my flock, but this article has me thinking.

Okay, very new to this chicken raising business so your advice would be appreciated. I did acquire three new pullets and they are currently in quarantine. It is the first night and one of them is breathing loudly/noisily. That is the only current symptom. So if it worsens or not gets better, where do I go from here? Return birds to backyard breeder I bought them? Cull all three? Treat and then introduce after weeks of healthy appearance into my flock? I am open to ideas just don't know what the best protocol to do.

I" do nothave chicken jet my coop can't be build until october !my question is ?when is time to by my chicks, what to look for on a chick to be halthy i" need you're recomendations The places i'v been have so many , i' only want hens , 4to 6the most .Love everything on you're page and thank you for all the information .Many blessing !

I have 4 hens( almost 2 years old) all purchased together as baby chicks at tractor supply. a few weeks ago I bought 5 new baby chicks from a local breeder, 3-5 days old. now 1 of those chicks has a swollen eye in the corner, no breathing problems or mucus.These babies have been in the house since I brought them home, so they have not had contact with my outside hens. I am worried now that this chick had a UR problem and now all of my chickens will be carriers. We have these hens as pets and for the organic eggs they lay. Any thoughts on what I should do? Thanks

I have 4 hens( almost 2 years old) all purchased together as baby chicks at tractor supply. a few weeks ago I bought 5 new baby chicks from a local breeder, 3-5 days old. now 1 of those chicks has a swollen eye in the corner, no breathing problems or mucus.These babies have been in the house since I brought them home, so they have not had contact with my outside hens. I am worried now that this chick has an UR problem and now all of my chickens will be carriers. We have these hens as pets and for the organic eggs they lay. Any thoughts on what I should do? Thanks

HELP!!! I have a chicken that has lost her balance and I don't know why! I have isolated her and need some help please. I live in northern Indiana so I can't afford for my chicks to be less that healthy in this cold. Thanks

I hope this is a good place to post this, and again, I thank you for all your replies to my questions and this blog in its entirety. I think I would like to get some bantams for my flock to complete it (haha, yeah right said every chicken keeper!) I would be integrating them into a flock of 4 orpington, a couple golden buffs and a couple australorpe hens. Whats a safe number to introduce ( I have heard to introduce them in numbers, oppressed to one or two at a time) and will they be any less safe then if I was introducing standard size birds? Thank you.

I purchased some chicks and their moma. I had zero hands on experience. I did many, many hours of reasearch. I still bought sick birds. So now I have birds that will always be a carrier for whatever respiratory illness they might have had. I don't want to cull them. Does this mean I can never have any other birds? As far as I can identify, the illness has never been more than runny eyes and has cleared completely from all but the smallest one.

Great post as I was just going to ask about protocols to follow going to, during and after a big poultry show. It seemed to me that bringing a ton of different birds from all over to one place and in close proximity to each other would totally negate any of the flock isolation theories I have read about.

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